Joan D. Hedrick
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195096392
- eISBN:
- 9780199854288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195096392.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The widely publicized predictions of William Miller increased the millennial expectation. It was, to take the title of a millennialist newspaper, one of the Signs of the Times. Miller's preaching ...
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The widely publicized predictions of William Miller increased the millennial expectation. It was, to take the title of a millennialist newspaper, one of the Signs of the Times. Miller's preaching fell on fertile soil and released energies that mushroomed out of control. For George Beecher, who veered between strenuous attempts at spiritual perfection and plunges into fits of depression, it was to prove too much to bear. The difficult path he trod was both example and warning to his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was drawn into the vortex of perfectionist striving. Miller's predictions were publicized widely in the Boston area while Harriet Beecher Stowe was in the East arranging for the publication of The Mayflower. Harriet had written letters of religious import before, but never one of such personal intensity. The pieces Harriet wrote for the New-York Evangelist during this period reveal her preoccupation with perfection and final judgment.Less
The widely publicized predictions of William Miller increased the millennial expectation. It was, to take the title of a millennialist newspaper, one of the Signs of the Times. Miller's preaching fell on fertile soil and released energies that mushroomed out of control. For George Beecher, who veered between strenuous attempts at spiritual perfection and plunges into fits of depression, it was to prove too much to bear. The difficult path he trod was both example and warning to his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was drawn into the vortex of perfectionist striving. Miller's predictions were publicized widely in the Boston area while Harriet Beecher Stowe was in the East arranging for the publication of The Mayflower. Harriet had written letters of religious import before, but never one of such personal intensity. The pieces Harriet wrote for the New-York Evangelist during this period reveal her preoccupation with perfection and final judgment.
Scott R. Erwin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199678372
- eISBN:
- 9780191757808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199678372.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Theology
This chapter examines Niebuhr’s efforts in the years immediately preceding the publication of Irony to apply his theological vision to the rapidly escalating Cold War between the United States and ...
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This chapter examines Niebuhr’s efforts in the years immediately preceding the publication of Irony to apply his theological vision to the rapidly escalating Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Niebuhr struck a balance between remaining politically engaged in opposing Soviet aggression and maintaining a perspective on the shared failings of both countries that perpetuated the conflict. This chapter argues that, in his effort to reach an appropriate equilibrium, Niebuhr had to come to terms with the challenges posed by his own increasingly active role in the historic struggle as an adviser to the U.S. Department of State.Less
This chapter examines Niebuhr’s efforts in the years immediately preceding the publication of Irony to apply his theological vision to the rapidly escalating Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Niebuhr struck a balance between remaining politically engaged in opposing Soviet aggression and maintaining a perspective on the shared failings of both countries that perpetuated the conflict. This chapter argues that, in his effort to reach an appropriate equilibrium, Niebuhr had to come to terms with the challenges posed by his own increasingly active role in the historic struggle as an adviser to the U.S. Department of State.
Christopher Harvie
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637744
- eISBN:
- 9780748652143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637744.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The Catholic Apostolic Church was one of the lesser-known Scots influences on the Second German Empire, which was founded by Thomas Carlyle's friend Edward Irving. Carlyle identified himself so much ...
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The Catholic Apostolic Church was one of the lesser-known Scots influences on the Second German Empire, which was founded by Thomas Carlyle's friend Edward Irving. Carlyle identified himself so much with ‘history as biography’ that he has been dropped from ‘scientific’ lines of enquiry. The leitmotifs of ‘Signs of the Times’ were derived from Schiller: belief-systems as the alternative to mechanistic, fragmented unbelief; hence the stressing of the apocalyptic alternative. Carlyle, far from being the dark philosopher of ‘the work ethic’, really anticipates the vitalising options of Pat Kane's Play Ethic. Carlyle's world, carnivalesque as well as didactic, not only retained its relevance, but also advanced it: not primarily in book form, but dictionary-wise in brief lives and sayings and apothegms.Less
The Catholic Apostolic Church was one of the lesser-known Scots influences on the Second German Empire, which was founded by Thomas Carlyle's friend Edward Irving. Carlyle identified himself so much with ‘history as biography’ that he has been dropped from ‘scientific’ lines of enquiry. The leitmotifs of ‘Signs of the Times’ were derived from Schiller: belief-systems as the alternative to mechanistic, fragmented unbelief; hence the stressing of the apocalyptic alternative. Carlyle, far from being the dark philosopher of ‘the work ethic’, really anticipates the vitalising options of Pat Kane's Play Ethic. Carlyle's world, carnivalesque as well as didactic, not only retained its relevance, but also advanced it: not primarily in book form, but dictionary-wise in brief lives and sayings and apothegms.
